Re: Pressure Plate? - 2000 Boxster S

Ok learned gents try this one on. The victim is a 2000 Boxster S with 66K miles, a six-speed manual and no abuse. Last week or so I was driving along and all of a sudden with the next shift the clutch felt unusually light. Also it just didn’t feel right. Shifting is sort of ok, but the engagement of the clutch is not the same as before. I did a little searching on the internet and the most often cited reason for this problem was one or more broken fingers on the pressure plate. Before I have the tranny pulled and go for a new clutch/pressure plate are there any btdt experiences in this group.

It could be a crack in the pressure plate, but I would first took at the hydraulics.
Make sure that you have no leaks on the slave, just above the tranny and I would also bleed the clutch.
If you have trapped air in the system, you’ll have the same symptoms.
Please keep us posted.
Good luck.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 314,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

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Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

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thanks - will do.

Brought it to my indy and I'm in for $6800 now. Clutch, pressure plate and flywheel. Not related but parts that might as well replace, tires, AOS, RMS, bearing.

Here's how it ended. Tranny pulled and pressure plate springs must have gotten bent or went weak. When one placed the pressure plate spring side down on a table it did not sit level. Rather it tilted to one side. Had the pressure plate, clutch and fly wheel (bad) replaced. With the tranny out also had an IMS upgrade installed and replaced the rear main seal and air/oil separator. Oil analysis was performed and came back clean and finally had a new set of Michelin PS2s put on. Total tab $6850.

BTW, the car was never abused and autocrossed by me once many years ago. I didn't have the right tires so I was not competitive and I didn't want to spend the $$ so it was never autocrossed again. I'm guessing metal fatigue.

Don't know why but today I decided to pull the Boxster out of cold storage and fire it up. I'm going to use it over the next week while a friend who does not drive a stick uses my Caddy. There is no snow, ice or most importantly salt on the streets. This is the first time I've driven the car since the clutch work. It was 23F outside and the tranny is shifting smoothly, easy to get into gear when dead cold. It never did this the 20,000 I've had it. It was a balky piece of crap until the temp was around 80F. Maybe something in the old clutch/pressure plate was dragging for all those miles and I only decided to change them when something let go. Oh well I'll enjoy it now and it may end up in California.